There was also Growlanser: Heritage of War (known as Growlanser V: Generations in Japan, just to add to the confusion), which is supposed to be the worst in the series, and the only one Europe got. Publishers seem to like to do that, like us only getting Xenosaga Episode II.

Aside from the skill-plate system (which wasn't terrible.... but it was not exactly great either...) and being a wee-bit on the easy side for the franchise IMO, I love Generations... The character design really appealed to me in that title... Rufus and Melvina were freakin' waaay cool... Loved the MC's appearance... even the David Copperfield-looking Randall was alright by me.... Now Pirate-Knight Krious was a different story entirely.... way to take a white-haired sword wielding arch-type and completely remove any "bad-ass" from it at all..... but I can forgive...

I believe Growlanser 6 is a direct sequal to 5.... sporting the same battle system as well... what I would do to see that localized some day..

As usual whenever Growlanser 5 gets brought up I'm gonna say that it is horribly underrated and I think it's actually better than 2 or 3. The seamless enemy encounter system is amazing (I love how you can just run through anything you don't wanna waste time with) and I like how you can control the main character's movements realtime during battles (but if you don't want to you don't have to!). I also think the story is very strong in 5. The dynamic with the various nations trying to accomplish their own goals under the threat of the Admonisher is really well done.

As usual whenever Growlanser 5 gets brought up I'm gonna say that it is horribly underrated and I think it's actually better than 2 or 3. The seamless enemy encounter system is amazing (I love how you can just run through anything you don't wanna waste time with) and I like how you can control the main character's movements realtime during battles (but if you don't want to you don't have to!). I also think the story is very strong in 5. The dynamic with the various nations trying to accomplish their own goals under the threat of the Admonisher is really well done.

I loved HoW too is WAY better than Growlanser 2 at least, i liked the Story a lot it really was great and allowed for a great first time experience as was my first Growlanser game, i fell in love instantly i like very much the Seldous Role is very good, the other Roles were good as well. Its terribly underrated because of its graphics and the changed gameplay (Altought the only difference i saw was that you control the MC everything else was the same) the skill tree is very good, it reminds me of FF8 when it came to customization and complexity.

There was also Growlanser: Heritage of War (known as Growlanser V: Generations in Japan, just to add to the confusion), which is supposed to be the worst in the series, and the only one Europe got. Publishers seem to like to do that, like us only getting Xenosaga Episode II.

Aside from the skill-plate system (which wasn't terrible.... but it was not exactly great either...) and being a wee-bit on the easy side for the franchise IMO, I love Generations... The character design really appealed to me in that title... Rufus and Melvina were freakin' waaay cool... Loved the MC's appearance... even the David Copperfield-looking Randall was alright by me.... Now Pirate-Knight Krious was a different story entirely.... way to take a white-haired sword wielding arch-type and completely remove any "bad-ass" from it at all..... but I can forgive...

I believe Growlanser 6 is a direct sequal to 5.... sporting the same battle system as well... what I would do to see that localized some day..

Melvina is my favorite female in the series after GL3 Monica, Fanille was the "WTF" character for me with her strange outfit.

Growlanser 6 is a direct sequel and Hashen is playable (You can even change his name), actually HoW uses the same gameplay as Growlanser 6 as the original JP version had a tuned down gameplay, i enjoyed it a lot so it would be great if it gets localized.

(BTW, this is objective, but I strongly disagree with yet another Kingdom Hearts rehash being GOTM instead of this. :( )

If it makes you feel any better, the vote was not unanimous. Took a lot of back and forth for us to finally pick one.

To be honest, I kind of wonder how it'd have gone if the games came out in the middle of last month, rather than the last day. And from what I saw both have similar unfair bullshit design: Growlanser can stuff you into places where you have inadequate preparation chances, especially bad if this comes after loads of story or you're one of those people who wants only one save ever, while Kingdom Hearts: Derp Dee Derp can throw you out of boss fights because of an arbitrary timer, forcing you to restart them later.

Considering you don't know a thing about the debate regarding the vote, it's almost cute how you think that it was brand recognition that gave KH the award and not that some editors actually liked the gameplay over Growlanser's.

Are "nominations" like these that enables a company to keep rehashing games, a shame really only Big names get mentions as GotM or GoTY.

Very close doesnt matter really and further ensure me that brand rcognition gave KH the upper hand.

Usually those very big titles are well made, and probably the only area KH games (ones they put serious effort into) are generally agreed upon to be good at is gameplay... which can be enough. Plus I didn't elaborate enough on how an extra two weeks could've flipped things around: that'd have given Growlanser time for word of mouth to spread, and for those that got the game to sink enough time to form a real opinion. As is only importers and those with review copies could get that kind of time (obviously), and Growlanser definitely doesn't start fast, it's pacing is actually kind of bad at first though this gets better.